Good info, doesn't change anything. With 2 more beta give-aways to go, we'll be in november and people will still be new to beta. Why bother adding a beta tester a week or two or even a month before release?

Again, I'd love to be a beta tester -- heck at least I'd see this game this year. I'm mostly irked because I've paid for the pre-order and the starter kit and it was just a donation to sony for vapor-ware. People have been talking about this game coming out since March.

People who say they want it well tested before release as an argument. If sony is still uncertain of a date, they shouldn't be taking pre-orders. Last spring in EQ Live, there were like 3 months were monsters were not always spawning above ground but would still kill you (and say that you can't see them if you try to defend yourself.) You could fall through the geomotry at any point and wait hours or days for a guide to rescue you. Etc. Etc. Sony isn't known for their good testing and they are certainly known for charging their players anyway.

I've paid them money for a game that doesn't exist and I think they owe me a release date. This beta contest is nifty -- it raises awareness that the game might someday exist and creates an elite club of folks who can just look at the rest of us suckers and say "oh, I signed an NDA and can't talk about how great it is."

Frankly, the NDA is about as iritating as the fact that I paid money and haven't seen a release date. The "expected in 2004" is getting old. If they lifted the NDA, at least we could see if our money is buying us anything interesting.